1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an insulated gate field effect semiconductor device using a thin film semiconductor and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known structure of an insulated gate field effect transistor using a thin film semiconductor (hereinafter referred to simply as xe2x80x9cTFTxe2x80x9d) is shown in FIG. 2D. The method for producing such TFT is described below with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2D.
A base film (silicon oxide film) 22 is formed on a glass substrate 21 at a thickness of approximately 2000 xc3x85. On the base film 22, a silicon semiconductor layer 23 having amorphous or crystalline structure is formed as an active layer (where source/drain regions and a channel forming region are formed) at a thickness of about 1000 xc3x85 to obtain the shape shown in FIG. 2A. An element separation patterning is performed to obtain a shape shown in FIG. 2B. During this patterning, it is difficult to etch only the active layer 23, and the base film 22 is also etched to some extent. As a result, a recessed portion 24 occurs on the base film 22.
A silicon oxide film 26 as the gate insulating film is formed at a thickness of approximately 1000 xc3x85. As seen in FIG. 2C, however, the film 26 also generates a recessed portion 27. FIG. 4 is a cross section TEM photograph corresponding to the shape shown in FIG. 2C. The photograph represents the state of thin film at the recessed portion 27 where a concave strip appears to form a notch.
After this etching, an aluminum film 28 is formed at a thickness of 6000 xc3x85, and the film 28 is patterned to form a gate electrode. Then an anodizing treatment is given to the patterned electrode to form an oxide layer 29 at a thickness of 2000 xc3x85. FIG. 2D shows the A-Axe2x80x2 cross section of FIG. 2C. As illustrated in FIG. 2D, the aluminum film 28 is patterned to form the gate electrode. FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing of a plan view of a TFT shown in FIG. 2C or FIG. 2D. The C-Cxe2x80x2 cross section of FIG. 3 corresponds to FIG. 2D, and the B-Bxe2x80x2 cross section corresponds to FIG. 2C. The reference numbers 30 through 32 in FIG. 3 are the contact electrodes, though they are not shown in FIG. 2C and FIG. 2D.
A problem of such TFT is that the presence of recessed portion 27 causes substantial break of the gate electrode and the gate wiring 28. The breaking is presumably caused by the following phenomena.
1. The patterning of the gate electrode 28 made of aluminum is preferably conducted by a selective etching using a wet-etching method. By this etching process, however, an etchant solution enters into the recessed portion 27. As a result, the recess is enlarged, and, in the worst case, the gate electrode 28 breaks at the portion 34.
2. By anodizing after the aluminum film 28 is patterned, the surface of the patterned gate electrode 28 is oxidized. During the anodizing, however, the electrolyte solution enters into the recessed portion 27 to oxidize the portion 34 from the gate electrode side. Consequently, the gate electrode 28 increases its resistance and further becomes insulated.
The defects of TFT are supposed often to occur by the combination of these reasons. The production of TFTs having a structure shown in FIGS. 2C to 2D faces reduction of a yield.
The object of this invention is to prevent the etching of the portion 27 during the patterning of the aluminum film 28 and to prevent the oxidation also at the recessed portion 27 during the anodization after this patterning, in the treatment shown in FIG. 2C.
A preferred mode of the invention is described using FIG. 1C. According to the invention, as typically illustrated in FIG. 1C, a titanium nitride film 17 is formed on a gate insulating film 16, and further an aluminum film 18 used as a gate electrode is formed on the film 16. Since the titanium nitride film 17 can be formed at an extremely high step coverage (difference level coating) using a sputtering method, the recess 151 is buried or covered by the film 17.
The reason for selecting the titanium nitride film is that the material has etching selectivity to aluminum film. In concrete terms, during the etching of aluminum film, the titanium nitride film is not etched, and during anodizing, the titanium nitride film is not oxidized. Accordingly, a film having those characteristics may be used in place of titanium nitride film independent of the conductivity and insulating property of the film. Examples of that type of material that exhibits a similar effect as the titanium nitride film and is useful in this invention are a metallic titanium film in which no nitrogen is added and a phosphorus-doped silicon film formed by low pressure CVD (LPCVD) method. That type of film may be formed at a thickness from 50 to 1000 xc3x85, for example, a thickness from 50 to 500 xc3x85. It is necessary to form the thin film in consideration of the thickness of gate insulating film and of gate electrode.
According to the invention, wiring containing mainly aluminum is formed with high reliability on an object having a convex portion. When an electrode or wiring containing mainly aluminum is formed by covering on or crossing over the object (for example, the active layer 14 in FIG. 1B) having a convex, the breakage of the wiring structured with the aluminum film 18 at the edge 15 of the convex portion can be prevented. Because the first film (for example, the titanium nitride film 17) exhibits an etching selectivity for the second film (for example, the aluminum film 18). This utilizes the characteristic that the first film is not etched or has a low etching rate during the etching of second film.
In particular, when a titanium nitride film is used as the first film, when an aluminum film is used as the second film, and when the surface of the aluminum film is oxidized during the anodization, the oxidation in the vicinity (the portion 152 of FIG. 1C) of edge root of the convex on the object from the object side can be prevented, and the defects caused by substantial breakage of the second film can be reduced.
Titanium nitride film is not etched by an aluminum etchant. Consequently, even when an etchant enters the recess 151 during the patterning of gate electrode and gate wiring, the etching of aluminum film 18 can be prevented.
Furthermore, in the anodizing after the patterning of aluminum film 18, even if the electrolyte solution enters the portion 151, the oxidization of the aluminum film 18 from the gate insulating film side can be prevented.
As described above, the breakage of the aluminum film can be prevented by forming on the gate insulating film an aluminum film used as the gate electrode, via a titanium nitride film.